Helena Rubinstein used guile, brilliant branding, and more than a few falsehoods to lift cosmetics from an accessory for prostitutes to a desired luxury item. Geoffrey Jones reveals her history.
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Startups that do business with VCs that also fund competitors may find they get the short end of the attention stick and produce fewer new products, concludes research by Rory McDonald and colleagues.
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Companies that come to epitomize a nascent market—think Starbucks and boutique coffee—can capture greater success than other startups, says Rory McDonald. Is there a roadmap to becoming a “cognitive referent”?
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Rory McDonald describes the making of a "cognitive referent," which is a firm that customers, the media, analysts, and employees automatically associate with a new market category--think Starbucks and coffee.

At the Open and User Innovation Workshop, several hundred researchers discussed their work on innovation contests, user-led product improvements, and the biases of crowds.
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